Ana Villarreal is an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University. Her academic interests include criminal violence and emotion, urban inequality, illicit markets and local governance. She teaches courses on social theory and social problems with an emphasis on drugs.

Her current book project draws on long-term ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews and historical analysis to investigate the impact of sudden shifts in violence trends and fear on urban segregation and seclusion. Her work has been funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the American Association of University Women, the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, and the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology.